Poles mark anniversary of pope's death

Church bells rang out across Poland last night to mark a year since the death of Pope John Paul II, as his homeland urged the Vatican to swiftly make him a saint.

From the Baltic Sea to the southern mountains where the young Karol Wojtyla loved to hike and ski, millions of Poles lit candles and sang hymns for a man who inspired his nation's struggle against communist rule. Thousands descended on Wadowice, Wojtyla's little home town in the foothills of the Tatra mountains, and massed in the main square.

Thirty miles north in Krakow, a huge throng assembled beneath the window of the Krakow Curia, where Wojtyla addressed believers when he was archbishop and on visits after becoming pope. Prayers were said under a huge picture of John Paul bearing the words "Thank you JPII".

Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul's private secretary for 26 years and the current archbishop of Krakow, said mass yesterday before a congregation that included Poland's president and prime minister. "It was as if the world stopped for that instant," he said of the Pope's death at 9.37pm on April 2 2005. "He contributed to a fundamental change in the world."

At 9.37, the moment was to be marked by the tolling of church bells and Pope Benedict reciting a rosary for his predecessor at the Vatican, relayed on big screens across Poland. Even Poland's relatively few non-Catholics hail John Paul as the inspiration for the Solidarity movement. "I'm not religious, but John Paul was a really important person for Poland in its fight with communism," said student Hubert Turaj in Krakow. "He united us then, and he unites us now."